For those of us whom always seem to be cash strapped in our games (not because of our games, well, that too
), a nice recurring stream of revenue that will benefit your civilization are the barbarians. I don't know if you've noticed, but whenever you get attacked by barbarians, there is always a source from whence the barbarians came -- one of those barbarian encampments. These encampments pop up quite often (or at least they did for me when I had the barbarian setting on "Restless") and seem to always be guarded by a warrior conscript (2 hp). Furthermore, these encampments can pop up in an area that is covered by the fog of war. So what do you do? Set up a barbarian encampment culture area. Leave an area (preferably desert) under the fog of war and keep a unit or two nearby. When you notice that the barbarians are attacking again, send in your units to clear the encampment -- 25 gold. Rinse and repeat. The barbarians are never tough enough to take a city (unless you leave it poorly defended, a spearman should suffice in the early times), and they may even increase your defenders military staus (to veteran or elite -- but I'm pretty sure that you'll never become a leader from barbarians). With the extra gold, spend it getting other civs' technology -- I've bought a tech advance for as little as 20 gold, but usually they run between 50 and 75 in the ancient era (if you have good relations with them -- no not that kind of relations
).
Zardos
